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Obama's Credibility Problem

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, do you remember Barack Obama assuring everyone that if you like your health care plan, if you like your doctor, you can keep it? If you like your plan, you can keep it. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Do you remember Obama saying that? Well, Friday in Belgrade, Montana, at a town hall.

OBAMA: Everybody here who still has -- who has currently private insurance, you know, you would more than likely still be on your private insurance plan.

RUSH: Well, now it's more than likely. It used to be definitely, now it's more than likely. He's lying through his teeth about this. You know, I'm actually kind of stunned at this White House. They know that the bloom's off the rose here. They know people know this isn't true. They know this is one of the many reasons people are showing up opposing it, and yet they still keep saying it. I don't know why they think they can get away with this. Do they think Obama still has the gift? Do they not see the poll numbers? Because they know full well that people are gonna lose their private insurance. They know that's the objective. And now making big deals with Big Pharma, that's got the left all upset, that's extortion money. I don't understand them. We always thought they were smarter than this. This is really dumb to have him go out there and keep saying this because it makes him look like he's detached from reality, that he has no clue what's going on, like he's just a robot programmed with whatever is on the teleprompter out there, or if it's not a prompter they've made him memorize it. He goes out and says it regardless of the reality.

These town hall performances are getting worse and worse and worse. He had a student at Colorado Springs just literally run rings around him on the specifics of private sector competition. Obama was forced to agree with him. (imitating Obama) "But we can do something about that, we can do something about that," and used the post office example again, which does not help his case. Now, let's go to Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Jake Tapper filled in. Kathleen Sebelius, the hapless and clueless Health and Human Services secretary, was on there, and Jake Tapper said, "Now, look, that doesn't get into the whole issue of employers dropping health care coverage in general and all the people that will be added to the rolls, and I understand that, but how can the administration make the promise that if you like your insurance plan, you can keep it when CBO and other analysts estimate that some people will be switched from private to public?"

SEBELIUS: Well, I think, Jake, if you -- if you think about a marketplace option and new plans being created in Toledo, Ohio, or in California or in Florida, the network of doctors is likely to be pretty identical. A lot of plans exist in the same marketplace, and doctors are part of a variety of networks. So the idea that you would keep your own doctor is highly likely.

RUSH: That's highly likely again. It used to be automatic. It used to be definite. Now it's highly likely. And, by the way, I have a question. You know, all these State-Run Media people, from NPR, to CNN, to MSNBC say that I am racist, that I am sponsoring racist behavior by ginning up opposition to Obama's health care plan. The CBO has come out and said, "Your plan is going to break the bank. Your plan is not what you say it is." Is the CBO racist? Is everybody who criticizes Obama racist, because the CBO has, Congressional Budget Office. I'll tell you, that racist charge, they're trying to change the subject, that means they're losing the argument, it's an old play out of the playbook, and it hasn't worked. And yet they keep trying to make it work. It ain't gonna work.

Virginia Beach next. Chip, you're next, EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Rush, an honor and a pleasure to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Thank you. I'm not nervous. It's like talking to an old friend like talking to my friend Wayne on the phone.

RUSH: I appreciate that.

CALLER: You're welcome, sir. I was calling about the fellow from Boston that called to take you to task about the removal of the end-of-life counseling. I didn't make this point with your screener, but the previous doctor did. I think hospice care is available in Medicare, and certainly end-of-life counseling is part and parcel of hospice care.

RUSH: Yeah, my mother got hospice care when she had terminal cancer, and she was on Medicare. So, yeah, it happens.

CALLER: Absolutely. But his point was not -- it was part of what it was but what really had him fired up was that by that going away, the government paying for it was going away. His enthusiasm for that program seemed to me to be that somebody else was going to pay for it.

RUSH: Yeah, exactly right. That's how they're trying to sell this whole thing, that it's not going to cost anybody, the beloved government's going to do all of this and that's not possible. But I don't think that's even working. You're right, that's why the guy loved it because the government was going to start paying for it in toto as though that was somehow justice. And I asked him, "Well, whatever happened to the concept of paying for it yourself?"

CALLER: Well, with a great group of people, the fact that the government -- the point that the government is us and it's our pockets that are going to get empty to pay for this doesn't dawn on them. Maybe they come back to, "Well, it will cost somebody else more than it will cost me." But while I was sitting there listening, if I could make one last point.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And this may be an overgeneralization. But, you know, in life, it's kind of truth and fiction, and in life, it's not so much who is saying it, but what is coming out of their mouth. And over the course of time, people and businesses either continue to make and engender and build credibility, or they continue to just blow it and lose their credibility. One of the reasons for your growth and success has been everything that comes out of your mouth is credible and true and you can understand it just kitchen table economics. And the reason for the anger at these town meetings is when these politicians, Dingell and Connors and all the rest of these people get up there and say things, it just makes no sense. It has no credibility.

RUSH: It's even worse. By the way, thank you very much, but it's even worse than that. In addition to them not knowing what's in the legislation versus the degree of education of their constituents, they then tell constituents, "No, that's not true, that's not in the bill, you don't know what you're talking about, that's innuendo, that's rumor, that's a vile rumor that's going around." But, see, you make a good point because Obama had that. Obama had the exact kind of credibility you're talking about. In fact, it was magic. That gift, he had so much credibility, that it was almost like a cult with a whole lot of his voters. But his problem was he was speaking in platitudes. He would do generalities and very few specifics. He would just talk about we're going to end disagreements, we're going to have unity, we're going to get rid of the blue state divide, we're going to lower the sea levels, we're going to save the earth, we are going to have a new era of economic prosperity in this country. All of these wonderful platitudes, but then came the specifics.

So you match up what happened with the stimulus bill with the platitudes and they don't go together. There aren't anything but three million jobs lost. There aren't any jobs created. They're now having to resort -- I've got some stories here in the stack -- they're having to resort to saying the stimulus worked by saying, "Look at all the jobs saved, look at all the layoffs that haven't happened." Well, there's no way to calculate layoffs that haven't happened and make it sound successful, but that's what they're reduced to doing. Even the bailouts, bailing out General Motors ended up with the government owning it, with Obama firing the CEO. And now we see Obama attacking the American people right out of the Oval Office and with the snitch website. So all of those wonderful platitudes -- you remember people were actually saying, folks, in the media, "We've never had anybody like this before. There's never been anybody like this in American politics," and the American people, enough of them, number of them, "Yeah."

Most people are disgusted by politics. Most people look at these town halls and they think that's what politics every day is, a bunch of lying, conniving members of Congress who will say anything to get constituents off their back, head back to Washington and do whatever they want to do and somehow getting rich personally in the process. And we had somebody who was going to come along and just be something unlike anything we've ever seen. And what do we learn? We have discovered that this is the most radical of what we have always had. The platitudes do not match the specifics. We've lost three million jobs. There is no sign that that is slowing down. There is no sign it's going to change, and the more Obama takes over the private sector, the fewer opportunities for private sector jobs there will be. We don't see signs of economic growth. We don't see upbeat attitudes, and we don't see any inspirational, positive attitudes from people. It's still very negative.

Meanwhile, Obama's out there still speaking in these platitude generalities. "We're going to rebuild our economy, it's going to take some time, but we're going to make it stronger than ever so that this never happens again." Right now people aren't worried about it happening again. They want this over with, and they're learning, more and more, that the thing standing in their way is Barack Obama and his administration and Democrat Party policies. They are not helping. They are not fulfilling any of the promise. So Obama has a credibility problem. The more he goes out and does these town hall meetings and appears as detached from reality as he is, to keep using this post office example, to keep saying you get to keep your doctor and your insurance plan. Well, now it's highly likely you'll be able to. Whatever the gift was, it's gone and we have your standard run-of-the-mill politician. Stop and think of this. Think of all the popularity this guy had. Think of the trust, think of the hope that was invested in this guy by the people that voted for him.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Our previous caller was right on the money with this whole notion of credibility -- and trust. Obama has squandered an amazing amount of it. On every issue that matters to him, he's losing big in the polls. And look at this headline from Politico: "GOP Gains Steam as Health Bill Sputters ... 'Republicans have quickly recovered their voice,' Rep. Mark Kirk, whose Senate campaign in Illinois has many Republicans eyeing a pickup told Politico." Republicans have recovered their voice? Let's be clear what's happened here: Conservatives and a liberty-centered message has prevailed in this argument. The Republicans didn't counter Obamacare. The Republicans' "counter" was with a version of Obama's premise! What's happened here is that conservatism is causing the Republican Party to get some credit here for whatever is gaining steam. There are a lot of good conservatives in the Republican Party in elected positions, don't misunderstand. But it is a conservative, liberty-centered message that is prevailing in this argument. It's a substantive, real message over a scam; something that is widely seen as a scam.